While there is a wide variety of product distribution arrangements, it is often the case that an upstream manufacturer or wholesaler prefers, mainly from an efficiency standpoint, to ship out larger boxes or containers to the downstream recipients. The downstream recipients such as intermediate distributors, retailers or customers often, however, prefer to deal with smaller size containers for reasons such as easier handling, easier distribution or purchase in a more typical amount for that particular product. Many downstream distributors, retailers and customers also find it advantageous to have the option of being able to decide whether to stay with a larger undivided container or work with or purchase a smaller, divider container. This ease of handling and freedom of selection is particularly important in the beverage industry such as the sale of soda and beer.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,793,494 to Gordon Jr. provides an example of a prior art break-apart container that features an undivided container that is broken in half at the site of use such as a hospital. The Gordon Jr. container features an inner member that has an I-shaped cross-section and an outer cardboard wrapper that covers the open bottom and ends of the inner member. To join the inner member to the outer member, the exterior wrapper has flanges which are sealed about the entire periphery of the side walls of the inner member. The outer member has a central line of tearing which, in conjunction with an earlier or contemporaneous tearing of a central fold line of the inner member and a breaking of an inner member glue bond required to hold the inner member sections in proper position, provides for the separation of the sub-containers following removal of a shrink wrap covering. While describing enclosed sub-containers, the arrangement in Gordon Jr. involves a rather complicated assembly procedure involving a great deal of glue bonding amongst the various components making it not well suited for many manufacturers and their on-hand box erection equipment.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,919,269 to Wright et al describes a multiple compartment/separable container formed from a single piece of material. The single piece blank has a top panel with an exterior side wall panel, partial bottom wall panel, internal side wall panel and lap panel combination extending out from each side of the top panel. During assembly the panels within each compartment are arranged perpendicular to an adjacent panel with the lap panel curled under into adhesive contact with the underside of the top panel. The two adhered lap panels are separated by a central double perforation tear strip in the top panel. The non-connected side edges of the panels have extending from them a wide variety of different shaped panel extensions and bevel fold lines which are brought together to provide a fully enclosed container. Separation is achieved by ripping the top panel tear strip and relying on the respective adhesive lap joints adjacent the tear strip to maintain the individual sub-containers in assembled condition. As with Gordon Jr. noted above, the assembly requirements for the Wright et al. container involve highly specialized equipment and/or intensive manual labor and rather complex folding and adhesive steps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,249,738 to Werth describes a package formed from a one piece blank that is subjected to a series of folding and adhesive steps to form a container that can be broken down from a case to either 12-pack or 6-pack size. In addition to leaving the products exposed, the nature of Werth's container is similar to Wright's described above from the standpoint of involving highly specialized equipment and rather complex folding and adhesive steps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,419,431 to Neuber et al describes a separable container formed from a lower pair of partial containers which are placed in an end-to-end relationship and each have a plurality of side and top glue flaps. The container features a U-shaped covering body that has a central perforate split line and which is adhered to the various top and side flaps of the lower tray like bodies. As with the other prior art described above, the Neuber invention suffers from many of the same drawbacks described above including the reliance on highly specialized equipment and rather complex folding and adhesive steps.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,758,818 to Ewing, Jr. describes a dividable container which features two internal compartments formed from a single blank so as to have open top and bottoms. The two compartments are joined at either a top or bottom edge by a common fold which is perforated for ease in separation by a cutting device. Top and bottom tray like lids are provided to close off the open ends of the two internal compartments. These are adhered to the periphery of the open internal compartments through use of suitable adhesive. The top and bottom trays are provided with slits and perforations which are describes as helping to facilitate a blade cutting operation. This container is not particularly easy to separate, particularly with its emphasis on cutting blade usage, and like the prior art described above is also not well suited for many manufacturers box folding and erecting equipment and/or requires multiple types of equipment making for a longer assembly time due to for example numerous manual steps being involved for those facilities lacking the necessary equipment. Reference is also made in Ewing Jr. to the possibility of using tear strips such as that described above in Werth. This introduces the problem of waste material being produced during separation which retailers and the like would prefer to avoid (e.g., customers dividing a carton and leaving rip off strip in the sales area).